In 1987, the Hong Kong experience began the same way for everyone who came in by air—with an unforgettable arrival.

“The approach into Kai Tak [Airport] was extraordinary, because you’d typically fly in over West Kowloon,” Jason Wordie, a Hong Kong-based historian and author, tells Condé Nast Traveler. “You’re looking down and you would see buildings getting closer and closer, and then the plane thundered down, literally over the rooftops.”

Already an established manufacturing hub and Asia's top financial center by 1987, the British colony (preceding the 1997 “Handover” of sovereignty back to China) was the gateway to Asia, welcoming 4.5 million visitors that year. Few long-haul international routes operated to China and Thailand back then, so many Western travelers found themselves passing through well-connected Hong Kong via major airlines such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Lufthansa, Pan American World Airways, and Air France.

Despite a smattering of international influence, Hong Kong was still very much a thriving metropolis with a deep connection to Chinese culture.

A relatively expensive destination compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors, Hong Kong tended to draw well-heeled travelers for longer stays. By the late ‘80s, the city was already home to futuristic skyscrapers, duty-free designer shopping, and more than 50 hotels—including luxury addresses such as the Mandarin Oriental and The Peninsula. Despite a smattering of international influence, Hong Kong was still very much a thriving metropolis with a deep connection to Chinese culture, where travelers could easily discover mom-and-pop shops, open-air food markets, and tiny tea stores.

While Hong Kong continues to be a popular tourism destination, the last 30 years have ushered in dramatic change at every level. Aggressive development has transformed local transit and the arrival experience (Kai Tak was replaced by the Hong Kong International Airport in 1998), as well as taken a toll on street life and cultural heritage in the process.

Since 2012, Hong Kong has consistently been the world’s most-visited city, according to Euromonitor's global rankings. The tourism powerhouse welcomed 26.6 million international tourist arrivals in 2015, though the lion’s share of visitors come from mainland China, often just on day trips. This is nothing new: Inter-connectivity between Hong Kong and China dramatically increased post-2003, when Hong Kong leaned on China for assistance after a devastating outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Hong Kong’s the metro system, the MTR—which links to China’s southern Guangdong province—was up and running by 1979, serving nine stops across the Kowloon Peninsula in its earliest days. Today, the MTR connects the territory from north to south, east to west. Links to mainland China continue to expand, with a nine-hour route to Beijing, via Shenzhen and Guangzhou, on track to open next year. “In the late ‘80s, it would have taken me 2.5 hours to get to Central from my home in the New Territories [in northern Kowloon]. Now I can do it in 45 minutes,” says Wordie.

Hong Kong has shown no signs of slowing down since the 1997 "Handover" back to China.

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Hong Kong’s bragging rights don’t stop there. The city of 7.3 million people has the tallest skyline on earth, more than 14,000 restaurants, 61 Michelin-starred eateries, 250-plus hotels, major international arts exhibitions (such as Art Basel Hong Kong), the world’s longest outdoor covered escalator (which trudges up the hilly SoHo district), and enough glossy megamalls to capsize the island. But rapid development has come at a cost.

While Hong Kong struggles to strike a balance between development and its cultural identity, the city shows no signs of slowing down.

Back in 1987, the Hong Kong Tourism Association promoted the city as an “East-Meets-West” destination, where Chinese heritage was deeply embedded in the cosmopolitan tapestry. That marketing angle hasn’t changed much in 30 years, but the city delivers less and less on the promise.

"Artisanal mom-and-pop shops, handmade noodle restaurants, Chinese herbal medicine vendors, and local markets have been disappeared or shrunk by the twin forces of stratospheric real estate prices and the Hong Kong government's flat-footed urban development planning,” Daisann McLane, the founder of experiential tour company and food concierge Little Adventures in Hong Kong, tells Traveler. “One by one by one, the lovely little shops and places to eat are disappearing. It's unfortunate, because these small mom-and-pop businesses represent the heart and soul of traditional Hong Kong.”

For now, these areas offer a more nuanced experience, thanks to the number of cha chaan teng (1950s diners), cooked food markets, Chinese tea shops, hiking trails, classic boat yards, and ancient walled villages—in short, the experiences that make this city markedly distinct from New York or London.

"The far ends of Hong Kong island, like Shau Kei Wan and Kennedy Town, and older areas of Kowloon, like Yau Ma Tei, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City were overlooked in Hong Kong's early post-handover development plans, since they are poor, crowded working class areas with very old building stock,” says McLane. “We often take our guests there to give them a feel for what Hong Kong was like 50 years ago. But better visit soon, because even these spots are already feeling the first waves of gentrification."

While Hong Kong struggles to strike a balance between development and its cultural identity, the city shows no signs of slowing down. In addition to the high-speed link to Beijing, there's a third runway underway at Hong Kong International Airport and various ongoing redevelopment projects—the West Kowloon Cultural District, Central Harbourfront, and Aberdeen (on Hong Kong Island’s south side) to name a few.

No one can predict how the next 30 years will play out. But if the last three decades are any indication, the transformation will likely be as head-spinning as those ‘80s arrivals into Kai Tak.